Laughing Torso

LAUGHING TORSO

comfort. " Artists should be poor and not indulge
in comforts of any kind.95 One night we went to
an anarchist meeting in Soho. They had weekly
meetings and each week in a different language.
This night it was in German. Henri knew five
languages and translated for me. I did not know
much about anarchy but I thought that any kind
of revolt against anything was good. I decided that
it was dreadful not to have been born in Whitechapel
and that the proletariat were the only people who
were capable of anything. Henri came to my room
sometimes. He arrived one day and took out of his
pocket a large statue. I could see it sticking out as
it was about a foot long. It was cc The Singing
Woman " and is now in the Tate Gallery. We put
it on the table and admired it. Henri talked about
art and said, " Painting is an art for women.
Literature is an art for old people, but Sculpture is
the art for strong men.35
I still had my room in Grafton Street. One day
somebody said, " You might get a job to paint
furniture and do decorative work at the Omega
workshops in Fitzroy Square.55 The man who
owned it was Roger Fry. I knew his name very well
as he organized the first Post-Impressionist show in
London in igii.
Feeling brave one morning I went to Fitzroy
Square and asked to see Mr. Fry. He was a charm-
ing man with grey hair, and said that I could come
round the next day and start work. I went round
and was shown how to do Batiks, I was paid by the
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